Radio operator at the weather station on Hatteras received one of first SOS signals from the rapidly sinking RMS Titanic on April 14. 1912. His supervisor didn’t believe him. And refused to allow the radio operator to notify anyone else as to the Titanic’s plight.

The Outer Banks of North Carolina became Torpedo Junction in the Battle for the Atlantic during the early years of World War II. German Nazi u-boats, also called wolf packs, terrorized Allied shipping until the Allies were able to turn the tide in 1942. Entire ships and their crews disappeared beneath the waves of the Atlantic. The loss of life, munitions and supplies was horrific.

These cemeteries remain on the Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands as a reminder—a little piece of British soil carefully tended on the Banks. These are the graves of British sailors whose bodies washed ashore to be discovered by the Bankers and respectfully interred. British representatives of Her Royal Majesty still honor these men and the others they represent in a touching ceremony every year in May, open to the public. Some of these men were never able to be identified. They remain known only to God.